From The Sky
by MoonWorlds
Summary: He knew, as he shot through the sky that day, that his art was truly beautiful... Deidara oneshot.


**A/N: **Takes place before Deidara's induction into Akatsuki, during the earlier stages of his training with explosives.

**From The Sky**

The wind whipped across his face, blowing sun-bleached hair into his eyes. He could barely see; the world was a blur, rushing around him, below him, as he sped through the air.

It had worked. He was flying.

Deidara had been toying with the idea for some time now. A clay bird large enough to carry the wielder—it was the most ambitious project he had ever set out to complete. It had taken months of experimenting, leaving him with more burn marks than he could count, but finally, his art had given birth to something astounding. He wasn't sure if the thing would detonate at all, or perhaps explode in mid-air and take him with it, but that didn't matter. He still had plenty of time to work out every last flaw, perfect this new breed of beauty. Someday, it would be complete. Someday, it would—

_Bang._

Fire enveloped man and clay, sending them spiraling toward the earth. The sky blurred into the ground, shapes and colors spinning too rapidly to discern. Heat and flame scorched everything they connected with, reducing the shirt Deidara wore on top of his protective clothing to shreds. He collided with the floor of the forest he had been flying over, skidding and bouncing like some toy tossed aside. Pain gripped his body, echoes of the explosion ringing in his ears. Spots danced in front of his eyes, refusing to let the world slide into focus. Finally, as the last bits of scorched clay were dropping from the air, his vision cleared.

"Oi…" he muttered, flexing his fingers experimentally. Jolts of pain raced up his arms, but at least he hadn't lost any digits. Wincing, he pulled himself into a sitting position, testing to see if both legs had survived unscathed; they had. As he glanced around the clearing he had—luckily—landed in, his mind finally worked out what happened.

"Ah!" He yelped, getting to his feet too quickly and promptly tumbling over again. "It exploded, un! It exploded! Ha!" A grin spread across his face as he surveyed the results of his art. Although the bird didn't seem to have detonated properly, leaving half of the clay sculpture to drop to the ground, it had still managed to inflict some damage to the surrounding forest. Deidara was doing well compared to the trees, some of which had been blown to smithereens by the force of the shock wave. At such a close range, it was truly a miracle that he'd survived—had he been riding the half of the bird that did explode, he would have been dead for sure.

After a few more failed attempts, the shinobi managed to stand, though still slightly shaken. He brushed some burnt hair from his eyes, ripped the last shreds of cloth from his protective mesh undershirt, and picked up a few shuriken that had fallen from his kunai pouch when he landed. All that remained was to get back home somehow—and for that, of course, he needed another bird. Though he had neglected to take any clay with him, there was plenty left over from the last sculpture. He scraped a handful from a nearby rock and let one of his hands devour it, the tiny mouth molding and shaping. As he waited for it to finish, he sat again, cross-legged, with his back to a large tree.

After a few minutes, a tingling sensation in his palm alerted him to the bird's completion. Pulling it from the hand's mouth, he formed a seal, letting his chakra expand the clay to a suitable size. When it was large enough, he pulled himself onto the creature's back, careful not to graze a large bruise that had formed on one leg. At his command, the bird rose from the ground, teetering uncertainly from side to side for a second before beginning a steady ascent. Before it could rise too high (if the same incident as before occurred, he didn't want to risk serious injury), the sculpture began to creep forward, its speed slowly increasing until it was shooting along like a winged bullet. Deidara spread his arms, letting the cool air rush past his fingertips. All concern for safety forgotten, he rose through the air until low-lying clouds dampened his hair and skin. He grinned as widely as humanly possible as an overjoyed laugh echoed through the forest that he flew above. In the near future, he knew, these new sculptures would grace the skies with his art, with clouds of smoke and fire, but today…

Eyes closed, Deidara sped past his destination, his home disappearing into the distance. He could always come back later. For now, he was going to _fly_.

**End**

**Deidara. Oneshot. Do not add to story alert. Please review.**

**I do not own Naruto or its characters.**

**A/N: My longest completed story to date. Hurrah. (Still under 1,000 words, though. I need to learn how to draw out scenes.) I think Dei's a bit OOC, sadly. **


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